Plantation attorney launches digital estate planning tool
Barry E. Haimo
“Estate Studio,” an online platform for consumers and estate planning lawyers began as a spreadsheet Plantation attorney Barry Haimo created for a distraught, newly widowed client.
“And then I said to myself, this is something everybody should have,” Haimo said.
A 2008 Nova Southeastern University's Shepard Broad College of Law graduate, Haimo founded Haimo Law in 2010.
Haimo Law was founded the same year Haimo developed “MyFlare,” a personal emergency alert system and a software company that Haimo has since sold.
“Estate Studio,” is a more sophisticated version of the spreadsheet that allows consumers to “easily organize your assets, ensure your wishes are honored, and protect your loved ones,” according to the Estate Studio website.
Consumers input personal and financial information by navigating a series of prompts and receive a free, AI-generated “risk assessment.” The platform also can serve as a convenient archive that is accessible 24/7 from anywhere, Haimo says.
“That portal is a free, secure way of keeping track of your trusted contacts, your assets, liabilities, your insurance, your estate documents, anything you want to store, and then to share securely and easily with someone like me,” Haimo said.
Lawyers who pay a subscription starting at $150 a month can get unlimited use of “Estate Studio” as a highly specialized practice management tool.
A video on the Estate Studio website says the platform is based on three key pillars – “Seamless client onboarding, automated risk assessments, and 24/7 client connectivity.”
The “completion rate of our assessment is much higher, and the quality of information is much better,” than other practice management tools, according to the video.
According to the haimolaw.com website, Haimo, who has an LL.M. in Taxation and a computer science background, is focused on “empowering clients with knowledge” and understands that client decisions have not only legal aspect but also “align with personal values and objectives”.
“There’s nothing like what we’re doing, because we’re so narrowly focused,” Haimo said. “We’re not competing with other players, we’re complementing them.”
Haimo says the software can alert an attorney when a client experiences a material change in circumstance, such as a marriage, a birth, or home purchase.
Haimo believes the platform will revolutionize the relationship between estate planning attorneys and their clients.
“I want to create a paradigm shift in how we do what we do,” he said. “I want to create a proactive approach where we can get ahead of problems before they even become problems or fix problems before they become big problems.”
